The Beast Within

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

“Robbins, the lieutenant wants you in his office, now,” one of the detectives called out as soon as Hollis walked into the squad room. Hollis sighed, veered left, and rapped on Richter’s door. When the lieutenant hollered for him to come in he did.

“We’ve got another one, found about an hour ago.” Richter slid a slip of paper with the location across the desk to Hollis.

“Why didn’t someone call me?” Hollis grumbled as he memorized it.

“Someone did, several times, you didn’t answer your phone.”

Hollis pulled it out of his pocket and winced. He’d forgotten to turn it back on after he left the theater. But then it had been his day off and his mind had been on other things at that point. He saluted halfheartedly and left. The second he was out of the office he pointed to his partner, Abbie ‘No I’m not the singer’ Lincoln, and jerked a thumb toward the exit. She grabbed her jacket and followed, asking what was up.

“Our killer’s struck again. This time the vic’s missing an arm.”

“Where?”

“From where it was attached to his shoulder,” Hollis replied with a straight face.

Abbie snorted, smacked his arm, and said, “Where was the body found this time, you jerk!”

As they walked to his car, he told her. “Same general locale, just deeper into the woods.”

“If we didn’t know better I’d think it was a feral wolf or dog.”

“Wolves don’t use knives to cut throats or sever limbs or remove hearts.”

“No kidding.” She slid in to ride shotgun while he took the driver’s seat.

They arrived at the site fifteen minutes later to find the CSI leader waiting impatiently with his team. The body, what was left of it, was lying face-down on the dirt between two tall trees. After donning booties and gloves Hollis walked around it, careful not to disturb the surroundings any more than they already were, while Abbie went to talk to a man and a teenaged boy who stood beside a patrol car. Hollis could hear her talking to them as he worked.

“We come outta the trees,” the man said when she asked, “and there he was. At first I thought he might just be, you know, sunbathing or something considering he wasn’t dressed then I saw that he was missin’ an arm so I called you all real quick.”

“You didn’t see or hear anything?” Abbie inquired, taking notes.

“Nope, not a sound.”

Hollis heard her ask the teen as well. The kid replied, “No,” in a shaky voice.

Once Hollis finished his examination of the corpse he had the CSI team turn it over. Just as he expected there was a deep hole in its chest. The leader of the team confirmed moments later that the victim’s heart was missing.

Hollis’s mouth tightened as he set two of the officers to searching the surrounding area. Then he went over to where Abbie now stood by their car so that he could get the details of what the witnesses had seen. “From a first look I’d say the victim wasn’t killed here. Not enough blood. It’s just like the other ones,” Hollis added when she finished.

“Which means somewhere around here we should find the leg from the last victim.”

“I’ve put two men to looking. Whoever’s doing this is moving further into the forest each time but with no pattern, at least so far.”

“If this victim is like the others there’s at least a pattern to whom he chooses,” Abbie pointed out. “Gay males.”

“Gay males into the club scene, and we’ve yet to find the first victim.”

“Maybe our killer decided after the first one that he wanted to show off rather than hide his kills. You don’t make the headlines if no one knows you’re doing it.”

“Hell, maybe he ate the whole body, as far as that goes,” Hollis said, “and then got hungry for more human flesh, went hunting again and realized how easy it was to find ‘dinner’ by staking out the clubs.”

Abbie frowned. “There would still be bones to dispose of from the first one.”

Hollis was about to reply when one of the officers he’d put on the search called out from deep in the trees, “I think I found it.”

Hollis, Abbie and one of the CSI team immediately headed in his direction. They found the officer staring down at a femur that had been stripped of flesh. Several feet away they could see the rest of the leg bones with residual flesh still clinging to them.

“No sign of the foot though,” the officer said.

“As small as foot bones are he could easily have disposed of them in any dumpster, especially one belonging to a restaurant. Anyone seeing them would just think they were more chicken bones,” the CSI investigator pointed out.

Hollis nodded in agreement. “Sort of what your people figured from what was left of an arm at the first kill.”

The CSI man went back to get another team member while Hollis and Abbie returned to their car. Abbie veered off long enough to tell the father and son they were free to leave. When she returned, they decided there was nothing more they could do there and headed back to the station house.